1. Field
One embodiment of the invention relates to a key operation control technique suitably applied to an electronic apparatus such as a notebook computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), or keyboard.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a variety of battery powered portable electronic apparatuses such as notebook computers and PDAs have been developed. Along with advances in wireless communication infrastructure, users can easily transmit or receive data at remote locations or on the move. Thus a stronger demand for wireless communication has arisen.
An electronic apparatus of this type may have the following operation style. That is, a user may operate the electronic apparatus with one hand while holding it with the other hand in an unstable state (e.g., in a car). Operability with one hand becomes an important factor in determining the product value. In addition to an electronic apparatus of this type, even a desktop electronic apparatus may have an operation style in which the user operates the device with one hand while holding references with the other. Operability with one hand is a feature to be considered. A variety of proposals for efficiently operating a two hand keyboard with one hand have been made (e.g., Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 3-262024).
The technique described in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 3-262024 assumes a special keyboard called a thumb keyboard having two shift keys whose roles are different from those of a standard keyboard. For this reason, the thumb keyboard is not applicable to the standard keyboard because the original function of the shift key is disabled.
Also, a character located on the reference side of a target character is temporarily displayed and converted into a target character, resulting in cumbersome operation. This key operation is not efficient at all.